Gigantic Orange Makes A Colorful Roadside Return

Flower power

MOUNT DORA — Lake County's orange crop has never returned to its glory days before the devastating freezes of the 1980s, but a colorful drawing card for a former citrus stand is making a big comeback.

The orange-shaped building of the 1960s has been rescued from woods just south of Renninger's Twin Markets, the popular Mount Dora antiques center on busy U.S. Highway 441, where it has been withering away for the past 13 years.

The newly restored and freshly-painted Fiberglas structure will be used as a marketing tool for flowers, not fruit, by the new tenants of the former citrus stand, Eva's Creations.

He said the oversized orange is part of a genre of big weird things people have built to hawk wares ranging from fruit to dairy products. The orange stand is 15 feet, 8 inches tall and is about the same size around.

''All over the country there are hot dogs and milk bottles and oranges and apples and huge Paul Bunyons, all of them designed to sell something. I think they're worth saving,'' he said. ''Lots of people think they're architecture.''

Ronald Stephens of Eustis ran the fruit stand at the location from 1968 to 1983, when freezes decimated Stephens' citrus crop.

Stephens' cousin, Tommy Sanders of Eustis, owns the big orange, which was used for an attraction at the citrus stand. Earlier, it was featured at another citrus stand on U.S. 441 near the Dead River, Stephens said.

After Stephens' citrus stand closed, the big orange was pushed back into the woods, where it was visible from the highway, a worn-out relic of the past.

But where some may have seen trash, Eva Couch, owner of Eva's Creations, saw something worthy of treasuring. Couch moved her flower shop from downtown Mount Dora into the former fruit stand, which she is leasing from Stephens.

''I just thought it was too neat to sit in the woods,'' Couch said. ''It was kind of ugly and dirty. It was really deteriorating. It looked sad.''

So she decided to haul it out of the woods - it took a wrecker with a 28-foot boom to do the job - and spruce it up.

''We thought we could do something with it to incorporate it into the flower shop,'' she said.

The wooden floor, devastated by termites, was replaced by Couch's husband, Doug, who also built a porch. The interior includes several shelves for display space.

Kenny Smith of Mount Dora, whose wife is Eva Couch's cousin, pressure-washed the exterior and gave it a new coat of bright orange paint. Two leaves on top are painted green.

''It was pretty rough,'' Smith said.

By the weekend, Couch hopes to begin selling flowers and gift baskets out of the big orange. She hopes to use the orange to boost sales of roses - $9.95 for a dozen - and $3 bouquets.

Couch said people who have been around the area for some time have been stopping to admire the big orange, which they remember from years past.

Smith, who grew up in Orlando, said he remembers seeing it as a kid during family trips to Lake County to go boating.

''You knew you were in Lake County when you saw the big orange,'' he said.